Task force calls on public to join fight against child sexual abuse

Jan. 6, 2013

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Task force hears from survivors, experts

The Task Force on the Prevention of Sexual Abuse of Children traveled the state to learn better strategies for protecting Missouri’s children. Meetings lasted hours on end, with impassioned experts and stakeholders sharing the stark realities of child sexual abuse. Some of what they heard:

“While I lived with my biological mother, I was sexually abused by three different men. When I was approximately 8 years old, I was sexually abused by my babysitter. He ?rst drew descriptive pictures of sex acts, then had me strip in front of him, and he also touched me inappropriately and made me touch him. He would tell me if I told I would get in trouble, and he rewarded me when I performed sexual acts. I did not tell for what seems like a long time. When I ?nally told my biological mother, she told me it was my fault I was being abused because I was ‘enticing’ him to abuse me. She then continued to use the same babysitter and the abuse continued.” — Abuse survivor

“We need to teach our children to raise their voices and keep them raised until somebody listens.” — Kathleen Hanrahan

Director, YWCA St. Louis Regional Sexual Assault Center

“Youth who commit sexually inappropriate or illegal offenses are fundamentally different from adult offenders in that they have tremendous rehabilitative potential.” — Jerry Dunn, PhD

Executive Director, Children’s Advocacy Services of Greater St. Louis

“It should be made clear that there is both a legal and moral duty to report child abuse and not just to an up-the-line supervisor. There is simply too much at stake to pass the buck.” — Dan Patterson

Greene County Prosecuting Attorney

Recommendations from the Task Force on the
Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse

5 Create and implement standardized training for all mandated reporters. 6 Fund the creation and implementation of standardized, discipline-specific training for members of the multidisciplinary team and judges. 7 Identify and fund discipline-specific expert technical assistance for those team members.

Multi-Disciplinary Team Excellence

8 Establish discipline-specific best practices or standards for multi-disciplinary teams, law enforcement, prosecutors and medical providers. 9 Establish mechanisms for addressing the secondary trauma experienced by individuals who work to address and prevent child sexual abuse. 10 Assess for and address domestic violence when investigating child sexual abuse and providing services to victims and caregivers.

Mental Health Services and Treatment

11 Identify and fund evidence-based early intervention and treatment for youth with illegal/inappropriate sexual behaviors. 12 Identify and fund the expansion of mental health services to children who have been sexually abused. Awareness

14 The General Assembly should consider increased investment in preventing child sexual abuse in order to reduce the substantial financial, health and social costs associated with childhood trauma. 15 Private foundations in Missouri should increase funding to prevent and address childhood trauma.

Statutory Changes

16 Submit to Missouri voters a proposed constitutional amendment allowing evidence of signature crimes, commonly referred to as propensity evidence, to be used in child sexual abuse cases. 17 Modify 210.115 RSMo. to require mandatory reporters to directly report suspected child abuse and neglect to Children’s Division. 18 Clarify the term “immediately” in the mandatory reporting statute, 210.115 RSMo., and school reporting statute, 167.117 RSMo. 19 Clarify 544.250 RSMo. and 544.280 RSMo. to allow for hearsay evidence at preliminary hearings. 20 Ammend 491.075.1 RSMo. to clarify that the statute allows for the use of child witness statements relative to prosecutions under Section 575.270. 21 Modify the definition of deviate sexual intercourse in 566.010 RSMo. to include genital to genital contact. 22 Modify 556.037 RSMo. to eliminate the statute of limitations for the prosecutions of first-degree statutory rape and first-degree statutory sodomy.

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For decades, talking about child sexual abuse was something people just didn’t do. On a rare occasion, after a big headline, it might come up in water cooler talk.

In stump speeches, legislators might talk about addressing the problem, only to move on to other priorities when lawmaking.

On Thursday, the Task Force on the Prevention of Sexual Abuse of Children called for change. Members outlined nearly two dozen recommendations. Some stand out:

• standardized training for mandated reporters, as well as clarifications of the law requiring people in certain professions to report abuse

• mental health services for victims of sexual abuse

• a slew of changes in law to help officials prosecute offenders

The task force also wants action, and members are asking the public to join the movement — both to raise awareness and to keep leaders accountable. Because, local experts say, change will only come when the public demands it.

“The thing that I really hope comes out of this is that the community accepts the invitation to be part of the solution,” said Springfield-area Sen. Bob Dixon.

Report released

For the past year, the task force — created in 2011 — toured the state to evaluate the too-often hidden secret of child sexual abuse in Missouri.

On Thursday, the task force released its final report. It lists 22 recommendations across the entire community — from parents to educators, lawmakers to health care workers.

Greene County Prosecutor Dan Patterson said he was impressed with the report, especially its holistic take on solutions — from improved mental health resources to more education, to changes in law, to awareness campaigns.

“It does an excellent job on the global approach you have to take in combating child sexual abuse,” he said.

But nothing in the report was especially surprising to the people who have fought for changes for years.

Although it does mark the first time a group of such a broad scope has called attention to the problem, much of the report will sound familiar to Springfield residents.

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Many of the recommendations mirror those from “Unto the Third Generation: A Call to End Child Abuse in the United States within 120 Years.” Renowned child abuse prosecutor Victor Vieth wrote the paper years before his presentation in Springfield in 2007. He recently visited the city again to see how efforts to curb abuse had worked.

“I’m very proud of everything that’s happened in Springfield,” he told the News-Leader in March. “And the best is yet to come.”

Dixon and others certainly hope that he’s right.

Lawmakers move on legislation

On Thursday, Dixon said he sees awareness of the issues surrounding children at an all-time high. Now is the time to act, he said.

Fellow task force member, state Rep. Marsha Haefner, R-St. Louis, has stepped up to the lead the way.

She has promised to file legislation to change the mandated reporting process. It would require health care workers, educators and others to make a hotline call themselves when child abuse or neglect is suspected.

Current law allows frontline workers to notify a supervisor rather than making the call themselves.

Patterson fully supports the change. He said his office has encountered issues when a report is made up the chain of command in some organizations — like a big game of telephone.

The first report “can lose its original meaning,” Patterson said.

“It has certainly caused issues in a number of cases.”

Mandated report laws remain hazy

In Christian County, a Head Start director was criminally charged after she reported allegations of abuse by a volunteer there to the Ozarks Area Community Action Corporation’s main office but not to state officials.

The OACAC policy at the time, the woman said, was to report to superiors.

She was eventually found not guilty of the charge, but questions about how the mandated reporter law should be interpreted have remained unanswered.

Difficulties with that law are nothing new to the Ozarks.

In 2002, 2-year-old Dominic James died after being shaken to death. Months later prosecutors charged the nurse who treated James with violating the state’s mandated reporter law by not reporting finger-shaped bruises on the child. Charges against the nurse were eventually dropped.

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In 2007, a former principal at Rountree Elementary was charged with failing to report to the state hotline after learning a gym teacher had been accused of inappropriately touching students.

The principal had investigated the alleged incidents herself and felt there wasn’t any evidence of wrongdoing. She was eventually acquitted. Criminal charges against the gym teacher were ultimately dropped.

Other recommendations to curb abuse

Although recommended changes to statutes dominate much of the report, there is a significant number of other recommendations outlined — ones that task force members stress are just as important.

Mental health is one section.

The task force advocates for more extensive mental health resources on two fronts: for children who have been victims of abuse as well as children who have displayed inappropriate sexual actions.

“Children who have been sexually abused face an increased risk for future victimization and for perpetrating abuse against other children as they age ... Currently, there is little state investment in mental health services for these children and no system set up to ensure that, once identified, children are able to receive care,” the report said.

Other recommendations include more support to prevent burnout in frontline workers who help children who have been abused.

Members also called for more extensive training for people called on to be mandated reporters; expanding existing abuse prevention programs to include sexual abuse education; and creating a public awareness campaign.

But more than any one recommendation in the report, members hope that the tide will change for children as a whole.

Haefner said: “It is truly my hope that we will take this opportunity to make Missouri a state that truly values their children.”